Nayeon’s phone let out a chime as the clock struck eight, reminding her that it had been five hours since she had stopped by at the rehearsal studio for her team and Mina’s. She couldn’t help it. She was just so captivated by Mina.

Both teams had been assigned a joint rehearsal studio, as the organization that was holding the competition they were participating in couldn’t afford to give them separate rooms. Nayeon wasn’t complaining; the room was big enough for all nine of them, and it also gave her an excuse to watch Mina.

The other leader was, in fact, also a ballerina. She had done ballet for eleven years, then stopped to concentrate more on cheerleading. Nayeon had learned this through her and Mina’s several conversations late at night, while Mina took her water breaks. She was such an interesting person. Not to mention, cute as hell. Nayeon wondered if it was possible to get cuter over a certain amount of time. It probably was, because it definitely applied to Myoui Mina.

The music stopped, jolting Nayeon out of her thoughts. She leaned back against the wall, trying to regain her calm composure while gazing at Mina, who was breathing heavily and running her fingers through her hair. (It was so hard. So hard.) “Done for the day?”

Mina looked up, a weary smile on her face. “For now, yes. Though I don’t want to stop. I can’t come back to practice tomorrow, because we have the match the day after, and Jeongyeon, Sana, and Momo will force me to go to sleep.”

“What about Chaeyoung?” The midget, if Nayeon recalled correctly. The one who got along well with Dahyun and Tzuyu, and the one Jihyo had taken a motherly liking to.

Mina rolled her eyes, but her weary smile turned into a wider, genuine one. “Chae supports me in everything I do. If I said I wanted to practice for forty-eight hours straight, she’d be fine with it. She’d probably stay with me. In many ways, she’s like the Jihyo of our group, except...she’d never admit it. That, and she’s the youngest, so Jeongyeon doesn’t want her to take on that kind of role so early.”

Nayeon nodded, though she couldn’t suppress the ball of envy growing inside her when she heard that certain tone in Mina’s voice while she was talking about Chaeyoung. “Must be nice to have someone like that,” she mumbled. Mina nodded wordlessly.

Silence. And then an idea popped into Nayeon’s head.

“Hey, how about you teach me a few positions?”

Mina blinked in surprise before grinning. God, that adorable gummy smile. Nayeon was close to fainting. “Really? You want to learn?”

“Why not? No harm done in learning.” Nayeon took off her jacket and tied it around her waist, quickly adjusting her black v-neck before looking up at Mina with a knowing smile. “And this way, you can keep practicing. Am I right?”

Mina’s gummy smile got even wider (and cuter). She took Nayeon’s hand and led her to the center of the room, and started babbling about different types of positions, excitement radiating from her. All the while, she never let Nayeon’s hand go.

Once again, Nayeon wondered to herself. How in the world did they get here? From being rivals to being...whatever this was? It didn’t matter, not for the time being. Nayeon liked whatever this was. She wanted to stay in whatever this was.

Or perhaps become something more.